this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
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*white Americans maybe. There is a massive amount of the US that English is their second language... But not speaking a second language is really a problem many places.
Also black Americans. All in all, only 20% of Americans in general, only about 4% of white Americans and 7% of black Americans are bilingual. Compare this to 84% of Germans for example, a far less diverse country, where 38% speak two languages, 29% three languages, 17% even more than three.
Also, there probably are people earning a living wage doing freelancing in the US. It's a joke, a two-liner at that. Of course it's an oversimplification.
Germany may be a poor example. I do happen to live in your example (Germany). And it's far fetched to say Germany isn't diverse. You know how many guest workers to refugees we have taken in since the 60s? I just googled "foreigner percentage US" and the same for Germany. It's 13% for US and 18% for Germany. This is non-inclusive of the millions of second or third generation Turkish here.
Also, if you have ever been a foreigner in Germany like myself, you would know that these number are far overstated for German people that can usefully speak another language. There are better examples for your point, like Holland or Luxemburg with genuinely high second or third language levels. Or you can also look at native English countries and see the US isn't alone in it's low adoption of second languages.